Our Best Intentions
A Novel
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3.9 • 10 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick * NPR 1A Inaugural Book Club Pick * A 'Must-Read' by USA Today * Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize * Booklist Editor's Choice * CrimeReads' Best of the Year
A suspenseful drama about an immigrant family caught in a criminal investigation, perfect for readers of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You.
“Our Best Intentions is a thoughtful, gripping suspense that shakes up definitions of family and identity in a beautiful and refreshing way!” —Kal Penn, actor and national bestselling author
During summer break one day, Angie, the teenage daughter of Indian immigrant Babur Singh, is walking home after swimming at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a white classmate from a wealthy family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and—it’s later discovered—wasn’t properly enrolled in the public high school.
The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves. Alternating between multiple perspectives, Our Best Intentions is a gripping story about a father and daughter re-examining their familial bonds and place in the community that explores how easily friendships, careers, communities, and individual lives can unravel when the toxicity of privilege and racial bias are exposed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jain's riveting debut centers on a stabbing at a high school in affluent Westchester County, N.Y. While on the way to swimming practice, sophomore Angela Singh discovers her crush, Henry McCleary, collapsed and bleeding. After realizing he's been stabbed, she calls 911. As the story unfolds from various characters' points of view, the question is not who stabbed Henry, but why. Students, though, are quick to vilify Henry's assailant, Chiara Thomkins, a Black girl enrolled at the school who's been squatting on campus. As Henry, who is white, recuperates in the hospital, Chiara goes missing, and the McClearys' lawyer disparages Chiara for having used her cousin's address to attend the school. Henry, meanwhile, hides the fact that he and his friend Chris met Chiara to buy weed from her, and that Chris mocked her for being "homeless," held her down, and went through her bag. Also in the mix is Angela's father, Babur, an Uber driver and immigrant from India who has built up a fleet of cars to afford living in the school district for Angela's benefit, and who worries Angela's role in the affair will hurt her future. Jain excels at revealing each character's motivations and fears, and at how easily the truth can be distorted. This page-turner will stay with readers.
